OUTCO pledge their commitments to the Armed Forces Covenant

On the 29th March 2022 OUTCO pledged its support for the armed forces and veterans by signing the Armed Forces Covenant. The AFC is a pledge from OUTCO to honour the Armed Forces and support the Armed Forces Community. By signing the pledge, OUTCO is recognising the value that serving personnel, both regular, reservists, veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.

Commander Stephen Tatham of HMS Alfred and OUTCO CEO Andrew Barry

Section 1: Principles of The Armed Forces Covenant

1.1 We OUTCO will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:

• no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen
• in some circumstances special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.

Section 2: Demonstrating our Commitment

2.1 We recognise the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans, and military families bring to our business and to our country. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by:

• Promoting the Armed Forces: promoting the fact that we are an Armed Forces-friendly organisation, to our staff, customers, suppliers, contractors and wider public.
• Veterans: supporting the employment of veterans, recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process; working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) to support the employment of Service leavers.
• Forces Network: Establish a “Forces Network” to help those new employees direct from the Forces
• Mentoring: Establish a mentoring scheme of ex Forces to help new employees direct from the Forces
• Service Spouses & Partners: supporting the employment of Service spouses and partners.

Partnering with the Forces Families Jobs Forum; and providing flexibility in granting leave for Service spouses and partners before, during and after a partner’s deployment by signing up to the Forces Family jobsite

• Job Placement: Register with White Ensign to support job placement for service leavers and veterans
• Promoting: Promote the AFC by displaying AFC and ERS logos on OUTCO e-mail footer and copany website
• Reserves: supporting our employees who are members of the Reserve Forces; OUTCO will offer employees who are Reserves 10 days paid leave to support their ongoing annual Reserve Forces training; supporting any mobilisations and deployment; actively encouraging members of staff to become Reservists.
• Cadet Organisations: supporting our employees who are volunteer leaders in military cadet organisations, granting additional leave to attend annual training camps and courses; actively encouraging members of staff to become volunteer leaders in cadet organisations; supporting local military cadet units; recognising the benefits of employing cadets/ex-cadets within the workforce. OUTCO will offer employees who are Cadets 5 days paid leave to support their ongoing training and development
• Defence Engagement: Support where possible defence engagement events such as attending; Partnering With Defence (PWD) conference, Sandhurst leadership challenge
• National Events: supporting Armed Forces Day, Reserves Day, the Poppy Appeal Day, and Remembrance activities.
• Armed Forces Charities: support Armed Forces charities with fundraising and supporting staff who volunteer to assist.
• Flexible Employment: Will support and engage with Service spouses, partners, and families by offering flexible employment and career opportunities.
• We will work closely with Defence Relationship Management to develop a mutually beneficial relationship between our business and the Armed Forces community.
• We will promote our commitments within our client communities, partners and within our quarterly newsletters.

2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.